Hard floor surfaces such as wood floors, tile floors, linoleum floors, marble floors, granite floors, concrete floors, and the like are popular in homes and building structures. Commonly, foods, liquids, dirt and the like are dropped and/or tracked onto the floor surface, thereby staining the floor surface. Commonly, sponges, mops and the like are used to clean the floor surface. Various types of mops have been developed and a few are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. D388,705; D420,561; D477,701; 5,888,006; 5,960,508; 5,988,920; 6,003,191; 6,045,622; 6,048,123; 6,101,661; 6,142,750; 6,328,543; 6,579,023; 6,601,261; 6,685,056; 6,722,806; 6,766,552; all of which are incorporated herein by reference. These mops include various features, structures and/or components which can be used in the steam mop of the present invention.
It has been found that many types of stains can be cleaned with the assistance of warm or hot water. Steam has also been found useful in cleaning tile grout and many hard to clean stains. Steam can also be used to facilitate in the cleaning of other types of surfaces.
Various types of steam mops and steam cleaners have been developed to clean floor surfaces. One such type of steam mops and steam cleaners are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. D486,279; 5,386,612; 5,502,872; 5,907,879; 5,920,952; 6,571,421; 6,584,990; 6,895,626; 6,990,708; 7,059,011; 7,266,292; and United States Patent Publication Nos. 2002/0096201; 2003/0089383; 2006/01503632007/0079470; 2007/0130719; 2007/0169304; 2007/0209139; 2008/0034514; 2008/0066789; 2008/0236635; and 2009/0000051; and European Patent Publication Nos. EP1974647; EP1690488; EP1027855; and PCT Patent Application Publication Nos. WO 2009/008703; WO 2009/026203; and WO 2008/016741; all of which are incorporated herein by reference. Another commercially available steam mop is offered under the trade name THE SHARK. These steam mops include various features, structures and/or components which can be used in the steam mop of the present invention.
Although these various steam mops have been useful in the cleaning of various floor surfaces, many of the steam cleaning devices include a sponge or cleaning towelette through which steam is directed through, thus the stream does not directly contact the floor surface. In addition, these steam cleaning devices do not allow a user to easily direct steam to hard to access surfaces.
In view of the current state of the art of steam mops, there is a need for a steam mop that can direct steam directly onto a floor surface and which steam mop can be used to apply steam to hard to access surfaces.